Holder



G. B. VOGELEER HOLDER Jan. 17, 1967 Filed Nov. 27, 1963 INVENTOR GEORGE E. VOGELEER ATTORNEYS United States Patent Office 3,298,790 Patented Jan. 17, 1967 3,298,700 HGLDER George B. Vogeleer, Hopewell, Va, assignor to Hupp (Zorporation, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Virginia Filed Nov. 27, 1963, Ser. No. 326,554 4 Claims. (Cl. 279-2) This invention relates to holders and, more particularly, to novel holders for rotatably supporting cans or other hollow articles. Such holders are particularly useful in apparatus for drying inks and coatings deposited on cans to form labels although they may advantageously be employed for other purposes as well.

In a recently developed method of producing beer cans, the containers are formed from aluminum slugs in an impact extruder or by the draw and iron method at a rate of about 250 per minute, degreased, dried, and internally coated with a thermoplastic, epoxy or vinyl material. The internal coating is dried and the cans conveyed to a cylinder type dry offset printing press Where up to four diiferent colors of inks and an overvarnish are applied to the exteriors of the cans. In existing installations the inks and overvarnish are then dried by circulating 325 F. air around the cans for a period of 8l0 minutes.

Recently, novel improved apparatus has been developed for drying the inks and overvarnish with radiant energy. By employing this apparatus, the drying time may be shortened from 8-10 minutes to less than 20 seconds. In this novel apparatus the majority of the radiant energy impinging upon the can is absorbed by the inks and overvarnish. However, a small portionof the radiant energy will be absorbed by and heat the cans which, being made of a highly conductive material, will transfer the heat to the internal coating. To prevent this coating from flowing and to ensure that the entire surface of the can is uniformly exposed to the radiant energy emenating from the radiant heaters so that the cans will not be overheated and annealed in localized areas, they must be continuously rotated during the drying process.

Conventional mandrels and arbors have proved unsuitable for supporting the cans during the drying cycle because they are not adapted to support a closed end or open end container and/or do not provide satisfactory resistance against rocking of tipping of the can. In addition, the prior art devices have generally not permitted sufliciently rapid dotling of the dried cans because of frictional forces, have tended to damage the relatively soft internal coatings, and have lacked the ability to properly position and center the cans.

Copending application No. 260,913 filed February 25, 1963, by Horace L. Smith, Jr. et al. for Holder issued as Patent No. 3,157,406 on November 17, 1964 discloses a novel spider type holder which did not have these disadvantages.

In its preferred embodiment, this holder includes an arm-supporting body member adapted to be fixed to the end of a rotating shaft. A plurality of (preferably three) equidistantly spaced spring arms are fixed to the body member to provide two sets of spaced apart contact points for positioning, centering, and rigidly supporting a can slid over the holder into abutment with one of the two sets of spring arm contact points. Soft, heat resistant, readily replaceable sleeves of material having a low coefficient of friction are disposed on the spring arms to reduce the friction between the can and holder, to reduce wear on the spring arms, and to prevent the spring arms from damaging the cans internal coating.

Although this holder represents a substantial advance in the art it was found that it had certain disadvantages. First, it did not prevent the supported container from wobbling as the latter was rapidly rotated. Also, it was found that replacement of the spring arms and the protective sleeves was very diificult.

The primary object of the present invention is the provision of improved holders of the type disclosed in said identified copending application.

A further specific object of the present invention resides in the provision of novel improved spider type holders-which Will prevent Wobble of a rapidly rotated article supported on the holder.

Another specific object of the present invention is the provision of novel improved spider type holders with readily replaceable spring arms and protective sleeves.

Other objects and further novel features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the appended claims and as the ensuing detailed description and discussion proceeds in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a View illustrating one application of the novel spider type holder provided by the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a left-hand end view of the holder; and

FIGURE 3 is a right-hand end view of the holder.

Referring now to the drawing, FIGURE 1 illustrates a can 10 removably supported on a rotatable shaft 12 by a spider type holder 14 constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention. Holder 14 includes a body member 16 fastened to the end of shaft 12 as by a setscrew (not shown) and two sets of spring arms 18a-c and 19a-c which support can 10 in concentric relation to shaft 12 and position it longitudinally of the shaft with its closed end 20 a predetermined distance from the outboard end 21 of shaft 12. In the illustrated embodiment, spring arms 18ac and 19ac are surrounded by replaceable plastic sleeves 22a-c and 24ac to reduce the wear on the spring arms and to reduce the friction between the spring arms and can 10.

Body member 16 has a hexagonal central portion 26 providing six flat equiangularly spaced spring arm mounting surfaces 28a and integral circular end flanges 3t and 32 at opposite ends of central portion 26. The body member may be fabricated of any economical, readily machinable material such as mild steel and may have other than a hexagonal configuration, if desired, without exceeding the scope of the present invention. An aperture 34 through the body member permits holder 14 to be readily attached to the outboard end of shaft 12.

The three spring arms 18a-c (which are preferably formed from small diameter spring wire) have main portions 36 bent at substantially their midpoints to provide can supporting contact points 38 lying in a plane normal to and concentric with-the centerline of shaft 12 and spaced longitudinally from its outboard end 21. The free ends of spring arms 18a c are bent into a circular configuration to provide three coplanar stops 40 against which the end 20 of can 10 can be pushed to longitudi nally position the can relative to the outboard end 21 of shaft 12 and holder 14.

Spring arms 18a-c are fixed to the center of alternate body member mounting surfaces 28b, 28d, and 28 by screws 42 which extend through integral loops 44 formed at the ends of the spring arms opposite stops 40 into drilled and tapped apertures 46 (see FIGURE 3) in the body member or by other appropriate fasteners. As is best shown in FIGURE 1, integral intermediate portions 48 of spring arms 18a-c extend parallel to the centerline of shaft 12 through grooves or notches 50 in the periphery of body member end flange 30, and the spring arms are thereby prevented from becoming misaligned by pivotal movement about screws 42.

Replaceable sleeves 22ac are slipped over the free ends of spring arms 18ac (see FIGURES 2 and 3). Bent over end portions 52 of the spring arms prevent the sleeves from slipping off the spring arms as the supported articles are dolfed.

Sleeves 22ac may be fabricated from any suitable flexible, wear and heat resistant material having a low coeflicient of friction, although Teflon is preferred. When the sleeves become worn by repeated doffing and replacement of cans, they can be readily replaced with new sleeves.

Spring arms 19a-c (which are also preferably formed of small diameter spring wire) have main portions 5'4 extending at an angle to body member 16 and in the opposite direction from spring arms 18ac. The free ends of spring arms 19a-c are bent into semicircular configurations to provide a set of can supporting contact points 55 lying in a plane normal to shaft 12 and on the opposite side of body member 16 from contact points 38.

Spring arms 19a-c are fixed to the center of body member mounting surfaces 28a, 28c, and Zfie in alternation with spring arms Isa-c by screws 56 which extend through integral loops 58 formed at the ends of spring arms 19a-c opposite contact points 55 into drilled and tapped apertures (not shown) in the body member. Like spring arms 18ac, spring arms 19ac extend parallel to the centerline of shaft 12 through grooves of notches 61 in the periphery of body member in flange 32, and spring arms 19a-c are thereby prevented becoming misaligned by pivotal movement about screws 56.

Replaceable sleeves 2401-0 are slipped over the free ends of spring arms 19a-c. Bent over end portions 62 of the spring arms prevent sleeves Eda-c from slipping off spring arms 19ac as the supporting articles are doifed.

As will be apparent from the foregoing and from FIG- URES l3, each of the two sets of contact points 38 and 55 lie at the points of two equilateral triangles centered on the longitudinal axis of body member 16 when holder 14 is assembled. As is best shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, the two equilateral triangles are angula-rly displaced by 60 degrees. This is an important feature of the present invention since it trues the supported article and eliminates the wobble experienced in the earlier spider type holder disclosed in the copending application referred to above.

It will also be apparent from the foregoing description and from the drawing that the spring arms 18a-c and 19ac may be readily detached by removing screws 42 and 56. This represents a decided improvement over the earlier spider type holder referred to above in which the spring arms were soldered or brazed to the central body member. This detachable feature also simplifies the -re placement of protective sleeves 22a-c and 24ac which may be readily slid off the free ends of the two sets of spring arms 18ac and 19ac.

In general, the elements of holder 14 are made from considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be em braced therein.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. A spider type holder for supporting hollow articles of generally cylindrical configuration which have one open and one closed end comprising:

(a) a body member which includes an intermediate polygonal portion and radially extending flanges at opposite ends thereof, said flanges having grooves in their peripheries;

(b) a plurality of separate spring arms extending at substantially equidistantly spaced intervals from the periphery of said body and providing two sets of spaced apart article supporting contact points radially and longitudinally displaced from said body member;

(c) the spring arms providing one set of contacts being longer than the spring arms providing the other set of contacts and having terminal portions serving to engage the closed end of said articles;

(d) fastening means detachably and separately fixing each of said spring arms to said body member;

(e) said fastening means comprising loops formed in the ends of said spring arms and screws extending through said loops into threaded engagement with the intermediate portion of the body member; and

(f) said spring arms extending through the grooves formed in the peripheries of said flanges, whereby said flanges substantially preclude rotation of said spring arms about said screws.

2. The holder as defined in claim 1, wherein the longer of said spring arms are bent to provide said contact points substantially at the midpoint thereof.

3. The holder as defined in claim 2, wherein the shorter spring arms are bent substantially at the ends thereof so that the second set of article supporting contacts is substantially the same distance from the body member as the first set of contacts.

4. The holder as defined in claim 1, wherein the spring arms providing one of said sets of contact points alternate with the spring arms providing the other set of contact points around the periphery of said body member.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,891,739 6/1959 Wolfe 242 3,089,707 5/1963 Laux 279-23 3,093,331 6/1963 Carroll 242-466 3,157,406 11/1964 Smith 2792 FOREIGN PATENTS 583,608 12/1946 Great Britain.

ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primal Examiner.

B. S. MOWRY, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A SPIDER TYPE HOLDER FOR SUPPORTING HOLLOW ARTICLES OF GENERALLY CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION WHICH HAVE ONE OPEN AND ONE CLOSED END COMPRISING (A) A BODY MEMBER WHICH INCLUDES AN INTERMEDIATE POLYGONAL PORTION AND RADIALLY EXTENDING FLANGES AT POLYGONAL PORTION AND RADIALLY EXTENDING FLANGES AT THEIR PERIPHERIES; (B) A PLURALITY OF SEPARATE SPRING ARMS EXTENDING AT SUBSTANTIALLY EQUIDISTANTLY SPACED INTERVALS FROM THE PERIPHERY OF SAID BODY AND PROVIDING TWO SETS OF SPACED APART ARTICLE SUPPORTING CONTACT POINTS RADIALLY AND LONGITUDINALLY DISPLACED FROM SAID BODY MEMBER; (C) THE SPRING ARMS PROVIDING ONE SET OF CONTACTS BEING LONGER THAN THE SPRING ARMS PROVIDING THE OTHER SET OF CONTACTS AND HAVING TERMINAL PORTIONS SERVING TO ENGAGE THE CLOSED END OF SAID ARTICLES; (D) FASTENING MEANS DETACHABLY AND SEPARATELY FIXING EACH OF SAID SPRING ARMS TO SAID BODY MEMBER; 